On January 18, 1779, the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania passed a resolution commissioning a portrait of George Washington for the Council Chamber and selected Charles Willson Peale as the artist. In preparation, Peale traveled to the Princeton and Trenton battlefields in February of 1779 to make sketches for the background. The original portrait, the full-length version now in the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (in Philadelphia), was a tremendous success and Peale completed numerous copies for royal palaces abroad, each time updating the general's military dress. This figure of George Washington was probably painted between June and August of 1780. In every other version, Washington is shown after the Battle of Princeton, but here he is depicted after the Battle of Trenton, the turning point of the war. It has been suggested that this portrait was commissioned upon the order of Mrs. Washington, because it is the only portrait in which Washington wears his state sword and because the painting descended in the Washington family.

Gift of Collis P. Huntington, 1897 (97.33)

**The Metropolitan Museum of Art's permanent collection contains more than two million works of art from around the world. It opened its doors on February 20, 1872, housed in a building located at 681 Fifth Avenue in New York City. Under their guidance of John Taylor Johnston and George Palmer Putnam, the Met's holdings, initially consisting of a Roman stone sarcophagus and 174 mostly European paintings, quickly outgrew the available space. In 1873, occasioned by the Met's purchase of the Cesnola Collection of Cypriot antiquities, the museum decamped from Fifth Avenue and took up residence at the Douglas Mansion on West 14th Street. However, these new accommodations were temporary; after negotiations with the city of New York, the Met acquired land on the east side of Central Park, where it built its permanent home, a red-brick Gothic Revival stone "mausoleum" designed by American architects Calvert Vaux and Jacob Wrey Mold. As of 2006, the Met measures almost a quarter mile long and occupies more than two million square feet, more than 20 times the size of the original 1880 building.

In 2007, the Metropolitan Museum of Art was ranked #17 on the AIA 150 America's Favorite Architecture list.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art was designated a landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1967. The interior was designated in 1977.

Nicolas Poussin produced two major works telling the the story of The Rape of the Sabine Women, an episode in the legendary early history of Rome narrated by Livy and Plutarch ('Lives' II, 15 and 19). The other version, produced in 1637-8, now at the Musée du Louvre, shows a more developed architectural setting. This one belonged to the he maréchal de Créquy and seems to date about June 1633 to July 1634, when he was French ambassador to Rome.

The Rape, from the Latin rapere, meaning to grab, or steal (and later translating into sexually assaulting, presumably from the idea of stealing virtue), refers to an even that occured shortly after Rome's founding by Romulus and a mostly male group of followers. Seeking wives to found families, the Romans negotiated with the neighboring Sabines, who refused to allow their woman to marry Romans for fear of a rival culture. Faced with the extinction of their communicty, Romulus invited the Sabines to a festival of Neptune Equester. At the meeting Romulus raised his cloak as a prearranged signal for the warriors to seize the women. According to Livy no sexual assault took place. On the contrary, Romulus offered them free choice and promised civic and property rights. The women accepted Roman husbands, but the Sabines went to war with the Romans. The conflict was eventually resolved when the women, who now had children by their Roman husbands, intervened in a battle to reconcile the warring parties. During the Renaissance the subject was popular as a story symbolising the central importance of marriage for the continuity of families and cultures.

Poussin depicts Romulus, at the left, giving the signal for the abduction. The mother, her babies, and an old woman in the foreground were captured accidentally in the turmoil. The yellow armor worn by the man at the right is modeled after a Roman "lorica," which was made of leather and reproduced the anatomy of the male torso.

Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1946 (46.160)

**

The Metropolitan Museum of Art's permanent collection contains more than two million works of art from around the world. It opened its doors on February 20, 1872, housed in a building located at 681 Fifth Avenue in New York City. Under their guidance of John Taylor Johnston and George Palmer Putnam, the Met's holdings, initially consisting of a Roman stone sarcophagus and 174 mostly European paintings, quickly outgrew the available space. In 1873, occasioned by the Met's purchase of the Cesnola Collection of Cypriot antiquities, the museum decamped from Fifth Avenue and took up residence at the Douglas Mansion on West 14th Street. However, these new accommodations were temporary; after negotiations with the city of New York, the Met acquired land on the east side of Central Park, where it built its permanent home, a red-brick Gothic Revival stone "mausoleum" designed by American architects Calvert Vaux and Jacob Wrey Mold. As of 2006, the Met measures almost a quarter mile long and occupies more than two million square feet, more than 20 times the size of the original 1880 building.

In 2007, the Metropolitan Museum of Art was ranked #17 on the AIA 150 America's Favorite Architecture list.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art was designated a landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1967. The interior was designated in 1977.

National Historic Register #86003556

Estonia (2007)Image by scallejaAcrylic on canvas · 130x97 cm · 2007

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